The Seal of Hell
by LittleShaman
Summary: Cho and Hermione fight a terrifying supernatural enemy who holds the life of a minor character in danger...


this story is set during the Order of the Phoenix continuity, but there are no spoilers or information relating to the story at all. this is simply a brief adventure involving Hermione and Cho one day during July before the OWL exams.   
  
Chapter One - The Seal On Hell  
  
It could only be Hermione, wandering along the Second Floor Corridor, thick brown hair bushy and unkempt as usual. On this day, unlike most others, she wasn't concentrating on homework or extra classes - today was the one day that she was going to relax and enjoy. Her birthday.  
  
Now she was fifteen, fifteen years old! Five years of Hogwarts Education had already turned her into a capable witch and a renowned student - there was no spell, potion or practise she couldn't master and she knew it. She knew, from her studies of course, that she was ahead of most of her year. And, with all the extra credit work she kept offering to do, she was probably ahead of most of those in the year above!  
  
Sweeping round the corner, Hermione paused as she saw the girl striding towards her. Her throat constricted and suddenly she felt a familiar rush of nervousness. Those delicate, beautiful features. That silky, spun-twilight hair and rich dark eyes - Cho Chang. Could she be friendly to Cho? Should she? After the events of the past year, with Harry and Cho's difficult relationship all up in the air, should she be talking to the enemy? Hermione, for all her magical studies, had never learnt the fine art of human interaction and didn't want to appear rude!  
  
"Hermione! How're OWL revisons going?" called Cho suddenly, her face brightening.  
  
"Hi Cho!" called Hermione in response, hoping she didn't look too shifty-eyed as she looked everywhere but at Cho's face, feeling very guilty and disloyal to Harry, "The revisions are going fine thanks. Um... How are you?"  
  
Cho smiled, "I'm fine. Peeves just decided he was in the mood to drop a suit of armour on a first year just outside my Potions classroom. Unfortunately the First Year turned out to be a Slytherin, so Snape was far less happy than usual about interruptions. He told Peeves he was going to drum up an exorcism potion especially for him!"  
  
"Exorcism Potion?" frowned Hermione, "But that's awful! I thought those were mostly banned?"  
  
Cho nodded, "The Ministry don't like Exorcism Potions being used. Wizards who come back as ghosts do so by choice and carry on living semi-normal lives - that's what Nearly Headless Nick told me. So to exorcise Peeves would pretty much just be murder wouldn't it? If Peeves wanted to go on to the afterlife, or whatever happens after death, I'm sure he should be able to make his own mind up!"  
  
Hermione smiled. Cho wasn't a bad person. She was just a very emotional, very difficult person to handle. In normal conversation, with no nerves or anger, Cho was just a plain, sweet simple girl! She could see why Harry liked Cho, but at the same time why he had so many problems. Poor Harry just wasn't good at handling emotions, especially those of other people and MOST ESPECIALLY those of someone whose emotions go up and down like a rollercoaster. Cho and Harry were just far too different to comply with the Opposites Attract law.  
  
It was then, with the summer sun lancing through the windows and warming the cold stone corridor, that Hermione suddenly felt a cold chill sweep through her, sinking into her bones and setting off a shiver that rattled her entire body. Hearing teeth chatter, she looked up to notice that Cho's face wore a frozen expression, so much so that it looked as though she belonged outside in December, rather than inside during June.  
  
Normal coldness she could understand - but something about this reeked of magic. And not the good kind.  
  
"Hermione..." murmured Cho, "This coldness... Its..."  
  
Hermione nodded, "There's something wrong. But where's it coming from?"  
  
Cho fished out her wand, "Professor Quirrell taught me this in my second year. Its a tracing spell, it can take you to the root of any Dark Art spell cast in the area. Revealus Origialus!" And with that her wand-tip glowed dull amber, from which sprang a small bead of light with fluttering wings and dainty, naked limbs. The tiny fey-light bobbed this way and that, testing the air and flickering before darting off down the corridor.  
  
"We have to find out what happened!" yelled Cho as she started running, "C'mon Hermione!"  
  
They ran and ran, with Hermione riffling through plenty of stored knowledge as she tried to match Cho's leggy stride. The Revealus Origialus Spell was a Charm specifically, but used to trace Dark Arts. Little Professor Flitwick would never use such a Charm because he would never have need of it. But funnily enough, Hermione's year had never been taught the Revealus Origialus Spell in their Defence Against The Dark Arts lessons.   
  
The Revealus stopped, hovering outside a door. As Cho approached, the Revealus flickered red and dissolved into a shower of sparks that marked the door with a large X. It was the Girl's Bathroom - the one that no one used anymore for two very important reasons. The first was that it was the haunt of Moaning Myrtle, the moody, sullen girl who had died fifty three years ago as a result of the Basilisk's gaze. The second was that the sink in the bathroom had actually been the entry into the Chamber of Secrets where the Basilisk had dwelt before Harry killed it, the very same place that Tom Riddle, the sixteen year old form of Lord Voldemort, had nearly killed Ginny Weasley and Harry. Even though the Chamber was sealed, the Basilisk gone and Tom Riddle destroyed, there was still Moaning Myrtle to cope with, as well as plenty of bad memories.  
  
Wands at the ready, they slipped into the bathroom. As the door cracked open, a blast of cold air struck them full on, rippling their robes and clawing at their faces. Grabbing Hermione, Cho strode inside and pushed the door shut with a triumphant "HA!". But as the breeze died and they adjusted to the cold air, they heard a very quiet, very unsettling sound. It was crying. Hermione knew the sound.  
  
"Myrtle?" she called.  
  
The sobbing stopped. A head poked over the edge of the nearby stall, a delicate face framed by greasy black hair, puffy brown eyes magnified slightly by thin rimmed thick lens glasses. Moaning Myrtle.  
  
"What's wrong?" called Hermione, "Why are you crying?"  
  
She knew Moaning Myrtle always cried, that was how the moody ghost had gained her nickname. But there was something worse about this crying. Something far more mature and terrifying than the usual self-indulgent sobs.  
  
"A wicked beast. A terrible demon." pouted Myrtle, "It was here and it told me that if I did anything to annoy it, I would risk the Second Death. Most upsetting."  
  
Hermione was nonplussed, but Cho gasped in shock.  
  
"What?" asked Hermione nervously.  
  
"The Second Death is terrible. The death of the spirit. It means no afterlife. No more being a ghost. Just nothingness forever and ever. Eternal death. And only few things can ever do that..." replied Cho.  
  
"What can?" probed Hermione.  
  
"The Omega Geist. A form of poltergeist so strong that it is bound to one room, but in that room..." and then Cho broke off, gasping in horror.  
  
"What?" asked Hermione, "What's wrong?"  
  
"Oh no..." murmured Cho, "The Seal of Hell. Hermione, I have something awful to tell you..."  
  
END OF CHAPTER ONE - please let me know what you though! 


End file.
